Following the recent 49-5 win agianst Tarleton and a resounding 87-12 victory against Hoylake, Ormskirk U11s made the rainy trip to Lancaster looking to make it 3 in a row.
Despite the weather encountered on the journey, it was taken as a positive omen by the travelling supporters that the spring sunshine had broken though by the time we reached Vale’s ground.. However, its fair to say that as the
side have shown an aptitude on more than one occasion to be a ‘fair weather’ team, the coaches had a slightly less spiritual view and classed the improvement in the conditions as ‘bleedin good luck’.
The game got underway and had an almost dream start (a rarity for any Ormskirk side!) with centre Will ’snake hips’ Church crashing through for a very early try. The normally metronomic John ‘Jonny’ Thornhill took the conversion and against all the bookies odds missed. (There was obviously
something wrong with the ball and is now subject to a stewards enquiry!)
With the score at 0 - 5, the pattern of play then changed dramatically for the rest of the half. The very large and very handy Vale forwards reverted to an up the jumper game, which depsite some valiant defending from all quarters (and mostly on the Ormskirk line) produced 2 tries and 1 conversion for the home side.
Half time score 12 - 5.
Captain for the day Matt ‘the rocket’ Reddy used the half time break and his considerable vocal cords to bolster the teams morale and to ensure that no heads dropped in the ranks. Anybody who knows Matt will tell you, he is destined to be either a Regimental Sargeant Major or a Town Cryer!Â
The talking obviously worked and the second half saw another major turnaround in the run of play, this time in Ormskirks favour. The Ormskirk pack were now playing as a unit and more than matching their Vale counterparts in the rucks and mauls and the backs were tackling anything
that moved and forcing Vale on to the backfoot. This pressure allowed Luke ‘the boston strangler’ Grant to score a perfect Wingers try in the corner which was duly converted.
All level at 12 all, on for a draw? I think not.
With the win in sight, the determination of the team again increased with big performances from Patrick ‘butane’ Hagerty and Tom ‘hitman’ Hanlon in the forwards and William ‘dynamite’ Duncan, Ben ‘Ronnie Kray’ Sefton and Jack ‘billy whizz’ Whisker in the backs. As ever, Miles ’sniffer’ Neve was
into everything at scrum - half.
The last quarter of the game was played at a furious pace with some frantic attacking and defending by both sides. An indication of the fever pitch action was when Ormskirk were awarded a penalty in their own 22 and up-rushed Prop forward Benjamin ‘headless chicken’ Pose (who was having a
storming game) to punt the ball clear. A prop forward kicking penalties? What would Brian Moore say? Don’t worry Brian, we’ve had a word with his parents.
With the game fast approaching full time, Matt Reddy decided to employ the old addeage of better late than never and following a now trade mark rumble up the pitch, dived over the line to score. Adam ‘crusher’ Kingston who again put in a mercurial performance at fly half added the extras. 19 - 12 to Ormskirk.
In the dying seconds of the game Vale had one last ditch effort that resulted in a try saving ‘pincer’ tackle by Will Church and Matt Reddy right on the Ormskirk line. Believe me, being crunched between these two is not a good place to be!
Final score 19 - 12 to Ormskirk.
Â
A second game was played which allowed a number of key substitutions to be made.
Luke ‘Reggie Kray’ Sefton came on at Hooker and got stuck in from the off. Newcomer Jacob ‘G force’ Glover came on at right wing and Nathan ‘bomber’ Browne came on at left wing to have great game with a number of strong runs up the line.
With Ormskirk now ‘in the groove’ the score quickly mounted in our favour with the final score finishing at 45 - nil to Ormskirk.
Both matches were played in good spirits by the two closely matched teams with the Ormskirk lads showing great determination and character to pull back the 1st game that at one point looked as if it was slipping away.
